Jack dempsey and Angelfish?

[Fishnerd360]

Is there anyone else who have matured jack dempseys and angelfish together with a male angelfish being the dominant cichlid in the tank. Because I know for a fact jack dempseys are usually aggressive, but mine gets nipped by my angelfish and my dwarf pike cichlid.

 

[Bertie07]

Some jacks can be aggressive and killers but my current JD is very peaceful and can be quite timid. IMO a JD is quite a timid fish and not a glass banger like some other large cichlids but some can be aggressive. If yours is being dominated by the angel I don’t think he will turn aggressive as he matures but could become the dominant fish when he gains some size.

 

[d033ie]

If you decide on mixing the angels with the jack dempsey's make sure the angels are really huge. I keep and breed jack dempseys and i'm one hundred percent sure if a fish try's to intimidate a jack dempsey and it's nature is far from aggressive. It will be taken out, when the jack dempsey reaches a comfortable size. I actually had a red tail black shark, that belonged to my son in a tank with one of my dempsey grow outs. The red tail black shark was much larger and intimidated the jack often. The tables turn when my jack dempsey started to mature. The jack was still smaller, but was very comfortable with his size. Different things do happen in different situations though. If you're housing them in a large aquarium, with the right surroundings. You might be fine! The deeper the tank the better imho.

 

[duanes]

Because I'm anal about geography, I find keeping angelfish (Brazil) with JDs, (from North America, the Yucatan and other areas in Mexico), a little strange in that regard. If geography isn't a concern, que sera.
But as said above, at maturity a JD will easy shred the most aggressive angel to bits if looked at sideways.
In nature JDs usually share a very rocky hard water habitat, (pH 8 and above) with catfish and live bearers.
Angelfish prefer neutral to soft water pH 7 or sometimes lower (although pH is probably not really a concern) in heavily planted areas.
2, JD in nature videos below
Eden2
027 zps4b102ffd

 

[neutrino]

Never tried it.

It's possible to have an atypical reversal of the aggression you'd normally expect, I've seen it myself. Or it's possible to have an odd combination work with fish you wouldn't normally keep together. Sometimes tank size, gender, or some other combination of factors make unconventional things work against the odds. But I also agree that it can change unpredictably and in a heartbeat with a typically aggressive/territorial species (or individual), once they reach a certain size or adult hormones kick in. I've seen that happen also.

That's when you just have to know and be able to read your own fish.

 

[Serpentine]

As a general rule, Jack Dempseys will kill angelfish.

There are probably some exceptions but I sure wouldn't want to bet my fish's life on it. Odds are on the JD eventually if not immediately turning the angelfish into chum.

 

[Ogertron3000]

It's a strange combination. I think ,like the other guys say eventually the jack will get big enough to take on the angel then it will be all over. Might work and they coexist but I doubt it.

 

[Fishnerd360]

My jack right now is about 4 inches, and my angelfish are about 2.5 inches tall, not including fins. My jack used to attack my dwarf pike cichlid, but as they both grown, my pike attacked him. I don't recommend this, it's just working for me right now. They are in a 45 right now, I'm going to move my angelfish pair to a 20 gallon tall, so they could have a tank for themselves.

 

[neutrino]

Probably wise to plan on separating them.

Probably out there somewhere is a tank with some odd tankmates including an angel or two and an adult JD. Weird stuff works sometimes, you can't always explain it. But people can also be fooled by behavior of their fish when small. At 4 inches a JD is basically a toddler whose main motivation in the wild is keep a low profile and don't get eaten by the big fish. Other fish around that won't eat them might be a sort of security blanket. As an adult (if male) that all changes and becomes: stake out a territory, run off or kill most intruders, and wait for females to pass its genes on to, after which the female better move on also.

Doesn't always work that way. I had some wild A. rivulatus that from 2" on relentlessly wanted to fight everything else. Couldn't put them with larger fish, couldn't keep them together, had to isolate each one-- had 4, I think, bigger group and maybe I could have kept them together a while. Then again, I once saw a lfs tank with a 2-3" inch festae red terror and some 2-3" suriname type geos. They looked like they got along, no doubt for the reason I mentioned above, or possibly too new in the tank for the festae to settle down to business. But you know that wasn't going to last into adulthood.

 

[Serpentine]

What neutrino said.

I have a JD who was passive enough as a youngster that I kept him with Oscars. Then he hit the magical 4 inch mark and turned into a raging beast. He was so bad that I gave up trying to keep him with any civilized fish and dumped him in the tank with Red Terrors and vicious little jewel cichlids to fend for himself. He rules the tank. Even the festae defer to him, and they're the same size or a bit bigger. Normally Jack Dempsey vs. festae would be like Quizno's Unfair Matchup, but that JD is something else.